This invention relates to an image formation method for obtaining corrected color image information from an exposed silver halide color photographic material and for obtaining a color print therefrom in a reduced time and an apparatus for carrying out this method. It particularly relates to a photographic processing system based on a novel technical idea that a part of development processing for an exposed photographic material is omitted to gain rapidity and the resultant deviation in photographic properties is compensated for by image data processing.
The photographic processing system that is the most commonly used for color photography is a so-called negative paper system, in which a color negative film after photographing (i.e., exposed film) is developed, and the developed image is printed on color paper in processing laboratories. Where a camera store relies on large integrated laboratories, the finishing time required from receiving an exposed film from a customer to handing over color prints to the customer has been one day. In the case of an over-the-counter development system involving no delivery from a camera store to a processing laboratory, which has recently been spreading, the finishing time is about 30 minutes to 1 hour. Processing laboratories of this type are called mini laboratories compared with large integrated laboratories. The mini laboratories have achieved a great reduction of the finishing time on behalf of customers, but the finishing time at the mini laboratories is not at all short enough for keeping customers waiting there for having their negative film finished into prints. It has been strongly desired, while very difficult to achieve, that the finishing be completed rapidly enough for leaving a customer waiting.
Development processing (from development up to drying) of a color negative film requires 10 to 15 minutes, comprising a large proportion of the total finishing time. Thus, reduction of the development processing time for color negative films has been especially demanded. There are a variety of color negative films available from film makers, and a processing laboratory undertakes any kind of the color negative films. The fact is that a laboratory develops various kinds of color negative films in one processor with one kind of each processing solution, being restricted by the cost and floor space. Therefore, the development time for color negative films is set in conformity with the film which requires the longest development time of various kinds of negative films. Color negative films requiring a long development time are frequently found among high-speed films having an ISO sensitivity of 1000 or higher. Although ISO 400 films and ISO 100 films, which are used most commonly, can be developed in a shorter time, they are developed taking the same time as assigned to those films having a higher sensitivity and a lower rate of development. That is, processing laboratories have chosen the most economical system in which different kinds of color negative films are processed in the same processor with the same processing solutions. No customer service of selecting a processing time according to the kind of the film is available. Eventually rapid development services are hardly carried out.
Techniques for correcting unevenness in product (finish) quality of development processing or photographic quality of light-sensitive materials per se through image processing have recently been proposed and put to practice use. However, when color negative films requiring a long development time are subjected to rapid processing, the deviation of the product quality from the standard level is far beyond the range of processing unevenness that could be corrected through image processing. Correction into normal image quality by image processing of films having been subjected to rapid processing and underwent much greater deviation from standard quality over the processing unevenness has not ever been thought of except for special cases.
The special cases are for restoration of old historical photographs. Attempts to restore deteriorated images are reported, e.g., in T. Rowlands, Image Technology, p. 190 (October, 1993) and Harvard University, IS and T Reporter, Vol. 8, p. 9 1993). Even in these cases, restoration is possible only when specific conditions are satisfied.
JP-B-7-52287 (the term xe2x80x9cJP-Bxe2x80x9d as used herein means an xe2x80x9cexamined published Japanese patent applicationxe2x80x9d) discloses a method for developing an exposed color negative film, in which a bleaching step is omitted, and the accompanying problem that a silver image is superimposed on a color image is overcome by reading the development densities, from which the analytical densities of the image are calculated thereby to obtain the densities of the color image and those of the silver image separately. However, the resulting positive image obtained on the basis of the analytical densities of three colors, i.e., cyan, yellow and magenta, and neutral silver is still inferior in quality to the standard. There seems to be some factors deciding image quality other than analytical densities. The disclosed technique has not been put to practice yet.
Another problem of general processing laboratories mainly comprising mini laboratories is countermeasures against environmental pollution by the spent processing solutions (hereinafter called waste solutions) and drainage from a wash tank, etc. (hereinafter called waste water). Since nitrogen compounds contained in waste water are objects of drainage regulations, waste water containing nitrogen compounds increases the load of disposal. Where disposal of waste solutions is consigned, the lesser the amount of waste solutions, the lesser the cost of consignment. Therefore, a development processing system which discharges less waste solutions and drainage with reduced nitrogen components has been desired in processing laboratories. From this viewpoint, it is a thoroughly spread practice in carrying out universal development processing that waste water is reduced by a water-saving washing system (also called stabilization processing substituting for washing, inclusively designated low-throughput replenishment type washing) and waste solutions are reduced by low-throughput replenishment. However, there has been always a demand of necessity for further reductions in waste solutions and waste water.
Still another problem waiting for solution in processing laboratories mainly comprising mini laboratories is how to secure constant development quality even in the processing slack period. Because the processing throughput is smaller in the slack period, the amount of replenishers added to a processor is smaller, and the solution replacement ratio decreases. As a result, the processing solutions undergo deterioration with extension of the retention time in the processing tanks, causing, for example, sulfides and silver compounds to settle. It has therefore been demanded to take some measures for stabilizing the processing solutions in the processing tanks even in such a processing slack period.
In the light of the above-described technical background and the market demands, an object of the present invention is to provide a method and an apparatus for image formation which make it feasible to obtain image information (and products, i.e., color prints) with substantial equality irrespective of whether a color light-sensitive material is subjected to basic development or non-basic development. More specifically, the method and the apparatus are such that make it possible to carry out both basic development processing and rapid development processing in one processor for color light-sensitive materials and yet to provide equal product quality even if rapid processing is chosen irrespective of the kind of the color light-sensitive material.
Another object of the present invention is to establish a method for forming a color image in which the time required from the start of development of an exposed color photographic material to formation of a positive image can be reduced while securing the product quality.
A further object of the present invention is to establish a method for forming a color image in which the waste solutions from development processing are reduced, and nitrogen compounds in the waste water are reduced.
A still further object of the present invention is to establish a method for forming a color image into which a stable development processing system is integrated so as to avoid deterioration of processing solutions nor formation of sulfide or silver-containing sediment in a processing slack period.
A yet further object of the present invention is to establish a method for forming a color image in which the processing time required from the start of development of an exposed color photographic material to formation of a positive image can be reduced by omitting a bleaching step while securing the product quality.
As a result of extensive studies, the inventors of the present invention have found that the above objects are accomplished by (1) establishing a technique for obtaining, from image information obtained under non-basic development processing conditions, image characteristics that should have been obtained under basic processing conditions (hereinafter sometimes expressed by the term xe2x80x9ctargetxe2x80x9d as in xe2x80x9ctarget image characteristicsxe2x80x9d) and (2) combining the technique with a processing system which enables both basic development processing and non-basic development processing, particularly rapid development processing. They have succeeded in developing an image formation method for realization and an apparatus for carrying out the method.
The inventors further carried out investigations into (1) possibility of omitting a processing step involving a great environmental load, (2) possibility of omitting a processing step which could lead to advances in processing speed, and (3) a means for compensating for the reductions in product quality which might result from such omission. As a result, they have found that the above objects of the present invention are accomplished by building up a new development processing system and by subjecting resulting image information to image processing.
The inventors furthermore studied on application of the above-described new development processing system to non-basic development processing containing no bleaching step. As a result, they have found that it is effective in maintaining image quality even in such non-basic development processing that (1) correction of blue light absorption by a yellow filter layer comprising colloidal silver grains is incorporated into the image processing to obtain electrical image information of higher quality and that (2) the fixing speed is increased to improve the precision in reading the image information to be sent to the image processing step.
The fundamental concept of the present invention resides in introduction of the idea that image information obtained under development processing conditions deviated from basic development processing conditions is converted to digital information so as to enable image processing thereby to obtain image characteristics that should have been obtained by basic processing. More concretely the objects of the present invention can be achieved by the following techniques.
1. A method for forming an image comprising development processing an exposed silver halide color light-sensitive material and outputting image information obtained from the developed image to a printer, wherein
(1) the kind of the exposed color light-sensitive material is detected,
(2) the exposed color light-sensitive material is development processed under non-basic development processing conditions which are chosen according to the information as detected or separately furnished,
(3) image information is read out from the developed color light-sensitive material and converted to optical or electrical digital information,
(4) the optical or electrical digital information is subjected to image processing to obtain target image characteristics which should have been obtained if the color light-sensitive material had been development processed under basic development processing conditions, and
(5) the resulting image characteristics are output to the printer,
to thereby output image information having the same image quality as could be obtained by basic development processing.
2. An apparatus for development processing an exposed silver halide color light-sensitive material and outputting image information obtained from the developed image to a printer, which has
1) a mechanism for detecting the kind of the exposed color light-sensitive material,
2) a mechanism for choosing either basic development processing conditions or non-basic development processing conditions and carrying out development processing under the chosen conditions,
3) a mechanism for reading image information from the developed color light-sensitive material and converting the image information into optical or electrical digital information,
4) a mechanism for image processing the optical or electrical digital information into target image characteristics, and
5) an output mechanism for outputting the converted image characteristics to the printer
to thereby obtain a positive image having the same image quality as could be obtained by basic development processing.
3. The apparatus according to 2 above, wherein the non-basic development processing is rapid processing.
4. The apparatus according to 2 or 3 above, wherein the mechanism for image processing the optical or electrical digital information is constructed to carry out at least one of
1) processing for converting contrast data of the read image information to target contrast values which should have been obtained by basic development processing,
2) processing for converting color balance data of the read image information to target color balance values which should have been obtained by basic development processing,
3) processing for converting minimum density data of the read image information to target minimum density values which should have been obtained by basic development processing,
4) processing for correcting nonlinearity of the density vs. exposure relationship resulting from the non-basic development processing to obtain a target density vs. exposure relationship which should have been obtained by basic development processing, and
5) processing for correcting nonlinearity of the density vs. exposure relationship resulting from the non-basic development processing which is dependent on the kind of the color light-sensitive material to obtain a target density vs. exposure relationship which should have been obtained by basic development processing.
5. The apparatus according to 4 above, wherein the mechanism for image processing the optical or electrical digital information has a means for edge emphasis, a means for sharpness improvement, a means for granularity suppression, and a means for saturation improvement.
6. The method according to 1 above, wherein the non-basic development processing is development processing containing a color development step and a bleaching step but no fixing step.
7. The method according to 1 above, wherein the non-basic development processing is development processing in which a color development step is followed by residual color reduction processing and no desilvering step is carried out.
8. The method according to 1 above, wherein the non-basic development processing is development processing containing no bleaching step.
9. The method according to 1, 6, 7 or 8 above, wherein the reading of image information is carried out through reflected light.
10. The method according to 1, 6, 7 or 8 above, wherein the silver halide color light-sensitive material has a silver halide coating weight of 1.0 to 4.0 g/m2 in terms of silver.
11. The method according to 1, 6, 9 or 10 above, wherein the rate of replenishment for the bleaching bath and that of a final bath are not more than 30 ml per a 35-mm 24-exposure roll of film (135-24 format).
12. The method according to 7 above, wherein the rate of replenishment for the residual color reduction bath is not more than 40 ml per a 35-mm 24-exposure roll of film (135-24 format).
13. The method according to 1, 6, 9, 10 or 11 above, wherein the total amount of waste solutions from the development processing is not more than 50 ml per a 35-mm 24-exposure roll of film (135-24 format).
14. The method according to 7 or 12 above, wherein the total amount of waste solutions from the development processing is not more than 60 ml per a 35-mm 24-exposure roll of film (135-24 format).
15. The method according to 8 above, wherein fixing in the development processing containing no bleaching step is carried out with a fixing solution containing a fixing accelerator.
16. The method according to 15 above, wherein the fixing accelerator is at least one compound selected from the group consisting of a mesoion compound represented by formula (FI): 
wherein R1, R2, and R3 each represents a hydrogen atom, an alkyl group, a cycloalkyl group, an alkenyl group, an alkynyl group, an aralkyl group, an aryl group, a heterocyclic group, an amino group, an acylamino group, a sulfonamido group, a ureido group, a sulfamoylamino group, an acyl group, a thioacyl group, a carbamoyl group or a thiocarbamoyl group; with the proviso that R1 and R2 do not represent a hydrogen atom simultaneously,
a thiourea derivative represented by formula (FII): 
wherein X and Y each represent an alkyl group, an alkenyl group, an aralkyl group, an aryl group, a heterocyclic group, xe2x80x94N(R11)R12, xe2x80x94N(R13)N(R14)R15, xe2x80x94OR16 or xe2x80x94SR17; X and Y may be taken together to form a ring; with the proviso that at least X and Y is substituted with at least one of a carboxyl group or a salt thereof, a sulfo group or a salt thereof, a phospho group or a salt thereof, an amino group, an ammonium group, and a hydroxyl group; R11, R12, R13, R14, and R15 each represent a hydrogen atom, an alkyl group, an alkenyl group, an aralkyl group, an aryl group or a heterocyclic group; and R16 and R17 each represent a hydrogen atom, a cation, an alkyl group, an alkenyl group, an aralkyl group, an aryl group or a heterocyclic group,
and a mercaptotetrazole derivative represented by formula (FIII): 
wherein R4 represents a hydroxyalkyl group.
More specifically the above-described techniques include the following methods and apparatus (a) to (k) or combinations thereof.
(a) A method for forming an image comprising development processing an exposed silver halide color light-sensitive material and outputting image information obtained from the developed image to a printer, wherein
(1) the kind of the exposed color light-sensitive material is detected,
(2) the exposed color light sensitive material is development processed under non-basic development processing conditions which are chosen according to the information as detected or separately furnished,
(3) image information is read out from the developed color light-sensitive material and converted to optical or electrical digital information,
(4) the optical or electrical digital information is subjected to image processing to obtain target image characteristics which should have been obtained under basic development processing conditions, and
(5) the resulting image characteristics are output to the printer,
to thereby output image information having the same image quality as could be obtained by basic development processing.
(b) The method according to (a) above, wherein reading image information from the developed color light-sensitive material, converting the information to digital information, and obtaining a positive image having the same image quality as could be obtained by basic development processing are carried out by means of (1) a light source comprising a halogen lamp, (2) a light path in which the light for reading is controlled and passes through the developed color light-sensitive material to reach a receptor, (3) a receptor for reading the transmitted light and recording electrical image information, (4) an amplifier, (5) an A/D converter, (6) a digital image information processing unit, and (7) a log converter.
(c) The method according to (a) above, wherein reading image information from the developed color light-sensitive material, converting the information to digital information, and obtaining a positive image having the same image quality as could be obtained by basic development processing are carried out by means of (1) a laser beam source, (2) a drum scanning means, (3) an amplifier, (4) an A/D converter, (5) a CCD correction means, and (6) a log converter.
(d) The method according to (a), (b) or (c), wherein the output unit for outputting the image-processed digital information on the developed color light-sensitive material is selected from a printer for color prints, a heat-sensitive transfer printer, a digital printer for silver halide heat developable light-sensitive materials, an ink jet printer, a color photographic copier, and a printer for instant photographs.
(e) An apparatus for development processing an exposed silver halide color light-sensitive material and outputting image information obtained from the developed image to a printer, which has
1) a mechanism for detecting the kind of the exposed color light-sensitive material,
2) a mechanism for choosing either basic development processing conditions or non-basic development processing conditions and carrying out development processing under the chosen conditions,
3) a mechanism for reading image information from the developed color light-sensitive material and converting the image information into optical or electrical digital information,
4) a mechanism for image processing the optical or electrical digital information into target image characteristics which should have been obtained if the exposed color light-sensitive material had been development processed under basic development processing conditions, and
5) an output mechanism for outputting the converted image characteristics to the printer
and is capable of outputting image information having the same image quality as could have been obtained if the exposed silver halide color light-sensitive material had been subjected to basic development processing.
(f) The apparatus according to (e) above, wherein the non-basic development processing is rapid processing.
(g) The apparatus according to (e) or (f) above, wherein the basic development processing and the non-basic development processing are carried out in the same processor with common processing solutions.
(h) The apparatus according to (e), (f) or (g) above, wherein the speed of transporting the silver halide color light-sensitive material is chosen from at least two levels so that either basic development processing or rapid development processing in which the time for each processing step involved is shortened at the same ratio can be carried out.
(i) The apparatus according to (h) above, wherein the apparatus has at least two driving mechanisms for film transport having the respective speeds for film transport for choice, and the basic development processing and the non-basic development processing are carried out in the same processor with common processing solutions.
(j) The apparatus according to any one of (e) to (i) above, wherein the mechanism for image processing the optical or electrical digital information into target image characteristics which should have been obtained if the exposed color light-sensitive material had been development processed under basic development processing conditions is constructed to carry out at least one of
1) processing for converting contrast data of the read image information to target contrast values which should have been obtained by basic development processing,
2) processing for converting color balance data of the read image information to target color balance values which should have been obtained by basic development processing,
3) processing for converting minimum density data of the read image information to target minimum density values which should have been obtained by basic development processing,
4) processing for correcting nonlinearity of the density vs. exposure relationship resulting from the non-basic development processing to obtain a target density vs. exposure relationship which should have been obtained by basic development processing, and
5) processing for correcting nonlinearity of the density vs. exposure relationship resulting from the non-basic development processing which is dependent on the kind of the color light-sensitive material to obtain a target density vs. exposure relationship which should have been obtained by basic development processing.
(k) The apparatus according to (i) above, wherein the mechanism for image processing the optical or electrical digital information has a means for edge emphasis, a means for sharpness improvement, a means for granularity reduction, and a means for saturation improvement.